Good Evening, Mayor Nash and Council,
I am Tom Prussing and I have lived at 194 Ravenswood Avenue since October 1977.
As a 25-year citizen emergency responder, I am pleased that you have moved forward with Emergency Preparedness Coordinator for our City. It is long
overdue. Thank you.
I retired from Stanford in 2015 after 41 years in facilities engineering and management and as a certified OSHA Safety Inspector the last nine years of my tenure at Stanford.
I swim daily at Burgess Pool and realize how blessed we are in Menlo Park to have such a facility available to us, funded by our taxpayers.
From a facilities point of view and a safety inspector point of view, I would like the council to considers these points of perspective as you determine the next contract iteration for a Burgess Pool Operator:
• Impart to the future Pool Operator that the pool is a community facility paid for by Menlo Park citizens and it is not the personal property for profit of said operator
• Impart to the future Pool Operator they are the steward of a community pool that is made available for all residents of Menlo Park, including those who live east of Highway 101
• Best practices for contracted services advise a three-year contract (not five) with a yearly review and audit to inform the Menlo Park citizens and to seek patron input for improvement
• To ensure a safe pool environment, provide monthly in-service training for all lifeguards to review best practices, review pool issues and rules, review the schedule and most importantly discuss recent rescue activity to improve lifeguard and community safety (the current lifeguard cadre is strong but needs to stay so)
• Enforce and post pool rules for adults and children alike
• Provide clear and concise signage in at least English, Mandarin and Spanish
• Adhere to both Cal OSHA and Red Cross pool operations guidelines
• Maintain adequate staffing
• Schedule pool lanes that meet ALL the community swimming needs (the current schedule is most optimum – thank you Menlo Swim and Sport)
• Complete an audit over the last four years of Menlo Park Public Works maintenance, repair activity and upgrade projects to evaluate the RFP process to obtain vendors/contractors, to assess the extensive number of project delays and their causes, and to evaluate the cost to the taxpayers for a pattern of project change orders the examples of which include:
Family restroom upgrade – a two-week project took four weeks and required a
complete redo of one of the restrooms because the wrong grout was used
Men’s shower head replacement – 10 months
Instructional pool pump replacement – one week project took eight weeks
(Public Works and Burgess staff knew the pump was failing at least two
months before it failed but Menlo Park PW waited until failure to respond)
Instructional pool chemical upgrade project – one month took for four months
The Belle Haven Pool project is now many months behind schedule with not
urgency to resolve for the residents of District 1
Continual complaints about Burgess restroom sanitation issues by patrons and
MSS disregarded by Public Works
• Pool inspections should not be “telegraphed in advance” or prearranged so that pool health, safety and operational effectiveness can be clearly determined
* Prioritize the Belle Haven Pool project so we can provide for the children (and adults) in District 1 who will have been without a pool for at least three years
• Correct what appears to be the unintentional but pervasive exclusion of Black, Hispanic and Pacific Islander children from Burgess swim lessons and Swim Camp, especially since the Belle Haven pool will be closed throughout 2022 and 2023 (other patrons beside myself have also observed this unintentional exclusion).
We owe it to the entire community to provide the best for the most at a affordable monetary rate for participation.
Thank you very much.
